Looks like Commander Shepard may be taking Microsoft's motion controller into battle in Mass Effect 3. How do we know? Because the box art for the Xbox 360 version of the game claims this Mass Effect will be "better" with Kinect.

That heretofore unseen artwork was uploaded to EA's online store earlier today, then swapped out with something less feature-revealing. (Incidentally, the Kinect branded one is still up here when we published.) Kinect support for Mass Effect 3 is not a bullet point we've heard officially from Electronic Arts or BioWare, but it's looking like optional motion or voice control is due to be announced soon, likely at E3 2011.

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EA recently announced a delay to Mass Effect 3, which is now expected in early 2012. At the time, CEO John Riccitiello explained that BioWare was "adjusting some of the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 that can put this into a genre equivalent of shooter meets RPG."

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Last year, BioWare's Greg Zeschuk told GamesIndustry.biz said the company was looking at motion control in terms of how it could fit with Mass Effect.

"What can we actually do in a game like Mass Effect? Can we create a greater sense of immersion during conversations by using gestures?" Zeschuk said. "I think we probably could and I think that's where we'll explore. We're not going to do a party game, we're not going to do Dance Dance Krogan for Mass Effect. The reality is it's going to have a really positive impact."

"There's that impediment of a controller but hardcore gamers are never going to give that up. It might be nice to see a hybrid of a controller used with additional gesture on the side for immersive elements. So we'll see it go from family entertainment and then broaden out."

We're checking in with EA and BioWare to see if they'd like to randomly announce it now, but it's looking like a very good possibility. At the very least, we're going to get some interesting sex scenes out of Mass Effect 3 and probably even more fascinating mainstream media coverage of it.